Tagged: bananas

Actually…I guess “ghouls” would be more appropriate for this month, now that I think about it, since peeps are Eastery.

Meh…no bigs.

It’s pretty early by me, and I’ve been up since five with the peanut, so Imma get right to it. Here are my eats from yesterday…and you’ll notice there is lots of orange and fall-y goodness. Twas a good day!

Breakfast: For breakfast I had my usual giant mug of English Breakfast Tea and a “Banana-Oat Energy Bar” which, yes, sounds like just about every other oaty bake or muffin I’ve made in the past, but this was actually a recipe from The Runners World cookbook. It was quite delightful. Emma photobombed.

Snack: My first orange treat of the day – I mixed a big ol’ spoon of pumpkin into some vanilla greek yogurt and topped it with with cinnamon, walnuts, and pumpkin seeds. This is probably going to be my new go-to morning snack. So easy and sooooooo delicious…and fally. Nom.Lunch: On Monday I made and enjoyed a mushroom, baby kale, and swiss fritatta. I ate half Monday and ate the other half for lunch yesterday all wrapped up in a warm whole wheat tortilla with half of an orange bell pepper and spicy chipotle hummus on the side. Yum and a half. I’ve also been grilling up chicken for the hubbys lunch during the week and I maaaay have snagged a bite of it while I was slicing it up and putting it away. I couldn’t resist, it was all pesto-y and delicious.Snack: So as a former Starbucks barista, I can admit that the Pumpkin Spice Latte and I have a complicated relationship. Delicious? Of course!!! But it’s also fiiilllllled with sugar and a bunch of other crap not even remotely reminiscent of actual pumpkin (I’m sure we’ve all seen the infographic by now). My homemade pumpkin spice latte gives me the same warm happy feeling without making me feel guilty OR like I’ve just consumed a month’s worth of sugar. I simple brew a pumpkin spice k cup (I love me some Green Mountain Coffee) and I warm up some almond milk (or regular skim milk…depends on my mood) for about 30 second in the microwave and I whisk whisk whiskit until it’s frothy and delightful. Pour in coffee. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Enjoy.
I also snacked on an apple drizzled with some melted pb and sprinkled with cinnamon. I sprinkle cinnamon on everything throughout the year…but ESPECIALLY in the fall.I nommed this apple while watching the season 10 premier of Bones on Hulu since I missed out….any other Bones fans out there??? Did you catch the premier?? Well…my heart is broken and I hate everything…thanks season 10 premier…thanks for that. Meeeh…

Dinner: For dinner I made one of my cozy cold weather favorites. Mini Turkey Veggie Meatloaves…with mashed potatoes and peas…because meatloaf is always best served with mashed potatoes and peas. (Tell me this when I was a kid and I would have lost my mind….ARE THEY TOUCHING ON THE PLATE?! Yes, Lil’ Jen, and one day you’ll love it…I’d tell myself.) I’ll share my recipe for these lil’ loaves later
this week!

Dessert: Easy peasy one here, just two squares of Wegmans dark chocolate with almonds while the fam sat down together and watched a few episodes of Once Upon a Time. Emma wanted some chocolate, but I told her she’s gotta wait till she’s older. Mammas gotta lay down the hammer sometimes…amiright?

What’s your favorite orange treat?
Did you ever have a time in your life where NOTHING on your plate could be touching?
Favorite fall TV show??

I have returned with my favorite post of the week… What I Ate Wednesday!!I figured this was my best bet for getting a post up these days, as I haven’t been cooking too much of anything new to share a recipe with you, nor have I been working out regularly yet, as I still have two more weeks until I see my doctor again (though, I won’t lie, I’ve been trying to squeeze in a few minutes of yoga every day and I’ve been taking the little miss for walks in her stroller around the neighborhood!)

As always, shout out to our lovely host, Jenn, at Peas and Crayons!! First, we shall discuss my eats from yesterday…then…motherhood!

Breakfast: Every morning is a little different lately, as Emma’s sleep schedule is still not exactly a schedule quite yet. Yesterday I was up from 4:30 to 6:30 nursing her and changing her and lulling her back to sleep but I went back to sleep and she woke me up at 9:00 with her “MOM I’M SO HUNGRY!” cry. So first thing as soon as I’m up I feed her for a half an hour while my belly rumbles. I’m starving by the time I get to make my own breakfast…which winds up being 2 eggs plus 2 egg whites with Frank’s Red Hot, a whole wheat English muffin with smart balance, a handful of sliced strawberries, a banana, and a giant mug of English Breakfast Tea. While I was making my eggs…which were meant to be over easy…I heard Emma poop from two rooms away (she is a powerful pooper) so I ran to change her and my yolks cooked all the way through. If that’s not unconditional love I don’t know what is. 😉

Snack: My first snack of the day was a Kashi Chocolate Almond and Sea Salt with Chia bar…which is mighty tasty and fairly healthy for a prepackaged granola bar…while nursing the little lady. My second snack of the day, also enjoyed during a mid day nursing sesh, was a perfect plum! It was less than two bucks for two pounds of these babies at Wegmans this weekend and I was all over it!

Lunch: Lunch was kind of an ordeal yesterday. Just in that, in a perfect world, both snack times would have been lunch were I not feeding a hungry, hungry baby. I finally got the munchkin to fall asleep so I made this delicious taco salad. My father in law walks into the kitchen and says “it’s quiet in here”…sigh…and right on cue she started screaming. I put my salad down, change her diaper to discover she had a huuuge blow out and I needed to change her onsie, too, and of course I actually put away the laundry so they were all upstairs. I finally had her dressed again and she starts sucking her hands like a maniac ( that’s baby talk for “feed me immediately, woman” for those who don’t know) so of course, I fed her…for forty minutes…while staring at my salad waiting to be eaten.

Snack: An oldie but a goodie…plain Greek yogurt with peanut butter, honey, and some chocolate chips. Although after 4-weeks it does feel like my appetite has finally evened out, I pretty much feel starving alllllllll the time. This snack helps. 🙂

Dinner: Sometimes I think everyone needs some cheese and bacon. Yesterday was one of those days for me. I had my cheese and bacon on top of some homemade potato wedges with some scallions, broccoli, and a quick chipotle dipping sauce (1/2 cup plain greek yogurt, 1 minced garlic clove, 1/2 of a minced chipotle in adobo, and a pinch of salt.) It was banginnnnn!

After dinner it was about 8:00pm and I made myself a glass of chocolate milk before I sat down to feed the baby again. By 10:00 she was satisfied, changed twice, and snoozing…so I hit the hay, too. We slept from about 10:30 to almost but not quite 1:00am before she woke me up for more noms.

Late Night Snack: These Luna Protein Bars have been a godsend during my late night feedings. They are pretty small but pack a whopping 12 grams of protein – which means I can eat them quickly and actually feel satisfied for a while! I enjoyed this bad boy in bed by the soft glow of a nightlight, while feeding my baby girl at 2:00am. Obviously I would choose the chocolate peanut butter flavor…but the cookie dough is quite delightful, too.

So there we have a full day of eats for nursing mom, me!!

NOW ONTO MOTHERHOOD!!
I’m not gonna lie to you…these last four weeks have been a whirlwind for sure! I am completely flabbergasted that my baby girl is four weeks old today and will be a full month old this weekend!! Even when my days have no real distinct beginning or end it’s astounding how quickly time is going by. I’m doing everything I can to soak up the moments I have with my daughter while she’s this teeny tiny person…but I notice changes in her every day and I can’t help but be excited by what the future will bring!!

ABOUT BREASTFEEDING
My decision to breastfeed is one thing I receive the most questions about and I can say without hesitation that I know it was the right choice. “Are you sure she’s eating enough?” is a common question. Here’s a fun fact: yesterday I fed Emma for a grand total of 6 hours and 24 minutes. I’ve been using a fancy app the last two weeks recommended to me by my dear friend and fellow new mommy, Desirae, called “Feed Baby” which helps me to time and keep track of feedings, diapers, sleep, and it has been SO helpful! Then we get to “Are you sure she’s not eating too much?” *sigh* Sometimes I think it’s a bigger pain in the fanny to EXPLAIN breastfeeding to people then breastfeeding is itself! Even when I’m running on two hour of sleep at a time I am very patient with my baby. I am much less patient with grown-ups. Lucky for me, I feel very blessed that the important people in my life support my decision to breastfeed! I really wish more people would educate themselves about breastfeeding…and in general…before making assumptions about the well-being of my child.

ON MY POSTPARTUM BODY
Something I find particularly fascinating about some other women, and society in general I suppose, is how often you hear that a body is “ruined” after having a baby. It’s so common to hear other women complain about how their body was never the same after giving birth. There was even a part of me that was concerned I may feel the same way after having Emma. I can tell you now, though, that I cannot for a moment understand how anyone can feel that way about their body after their baby is born. I LOVE my postpartum body. Sure, there are parts of me that are still squishy…I had a baby four weeks ago! But my squishy body was the home of my beautiful, baby girl for 40 weeks. My hips may be wider, my butt may be smaller, and my clothes may fit me differently, but I could NEVER hate my body after it gave me the greatest gift I have ever received. Once I’m in the clear to work out again, I will be doing so of course. But I certainly won’t be obsessed with “getting my body back.” What I will be focusing on is making the most of this new, beautiful body I have now, and seeing what other amazing things it’s capable of doing.

Last week I did actually take photos of my Monday eats, as I typically do for my WIAW posts, and they were ready to go, but I was soooo exhausted on Tuesday I was like…I can’t blog…I need sleep. It’s hard to admit it, but I think this whole being less than a month out from delivering a baby thing is starting to catch up with me! I’m still working out regularly, but I’m definitely noticing that I’m getting tired much sooner than I used to. Also, now that we’ve gone from 50 degrees to 80 degrees and humid…I’ve definitely noticed a little puffiness in my hands and feet. Blergh. But we’re at 29 days and counting until my due date!! The nursery is all set (I’ll share pics soon!), my hospital bag is alllllmost totally packed (just need to pop in some snacks and I’m waiting for some nursing tanks to arrive in the mail) and this little munchkin is doing somersaults ALL. DAY. LONG…so I’m pretty sure she’s ready to make her grand entrance soon, too!!

Anywho, enough baby talk, here is my Monday of eats!

Breakfast: It’s been about a month since my banana chocolate chip muffins have made an appearance, or since we’ve let bananas sit for long enough without getting eaten that I could make muffins. So here they are in all of their muffiny glory! And of course some decaf english breakfast tea. 😀

Snack: I was really in the mood for some cantaloupe this week….soooooooooooo I bought one. Bam. Delicious.

Lunch: For lunch Monday I had a big bowl of my corn and black beans salad that I made on Monther’s Day. It’s probably my favorite salad ever. And I’m just now remembering I promised to send the recipe to my friend Allison and totes forgot. *sigh* Fail.

More Snacks: I’m pretty sure I had a string cheese at some point on Monday, and I’ve pretty much stopped taking pics of my string cheese because honestly…how many photos of string cheese can one person have on her phone? Seriously. But I also nommed on some ants on a log because they’re awesome and a few triscuits, too.

Dinner: Dinner on Monday was Mac & Cheese. Oh golly. I wish I didn’t love this stuff so, so much. It’s funny – I always go back and forth on the best time to eat Mac & Cheese. I picked Monday this week because we were taking the night off from the gym. Sometimes I think I should make it on a night we DO go to the gym…ya know…so I’m burning it off. But at the same time I really like to make sure that I’m feeding my body appropriately after a workout. I just wouldn’t feel right eating a bowl (okay…two bowls) of Mac & Cheese after doing a million squats or something. You picking up what I’m putting down? If you’re an avid gym goer and also Mac & Cheese lover…what are your thoughts on this conundrum?

Dessert: Well…after two bowls of Mac & Cheese I thought this ooey gooey brownie leftover from the weekend was the perfect nightcap before I fell into a food coma…and promptly went to sleep at 9:00pm.

So, what is your favorite thing you’ve eaten this week? Are you a mac & cheese-aholic? What’s your secret to your favorite mac & cheese? Would you rather eat something unhealthy on a day where you DO or DON’T workout?

Lolz. I hope you’re all having a nice week so far! I can’t complain about mine, really, but obviously I’m looking forward to the weekend! We’re hanging out with Ashley and Jared (and their new fire pit…with s’mores) on Friday night and Ashley and I are taking a barre class on Saturday and hitting up the farmers market and I can’t wait!!! As for the rest of the weekend, I like to think I’ll be spending an equal portion of it relaxing and simultaneously being productive. Hopefully we’ll get the last little bit of the nursery together so that I can start to decorate and get everything in order.Eeeeeeeee.

I can’t believe how fast this is all going!! I’m 34 weeks pregnant tomorrow!! I really need to post a bUmPdate sometime soon, too. Perhaps this weekend!! Lol.

Breakfast: Breakfast on Monday was my go-to bowl of banana chocolate chip oats with some flax topped with peanut butter. It’s really what I look forward to most on the mornings that I have it lol. I also had some *gasp* caffeinated English Breakfast tea because I was all out of decaf. (FYI – Twinings English Breakfast Tea contains approximately 40 mg of caffeine in an 8 oz cup. According to my doctor and every other thing I’ve read about caffeine consumption during pregnancy – 120 mg/day is considered perfectly safe…so I’m good, man.)

Snack: Snack time on Monday was a hard boiled egg and a string cheese. I didn’t snap a picture of the string cheese, but I’m sure you all know what it looks like. Either way, noms!

Lunch: Lunch was leftover Chinese food!! Leftovers are totally the best part of Chinese food, right? We tried out a new place on Sunday night that just opened by us that actually delivers!! That’s pretty amazing for central PA. I’m still sad our favorite place closed down, but I actually really enjoyed this new one! My personal go-to pretty much anytime I get Chinese (and I’m not with people who like to share) is Chicken and Broccoli with White Rice. I like to add just a litttttttle drizzle of soy sauce to my white rice, too. Johnny was a little sad this place doesn’t have Boneless BBQ Spare Ribs on their menu, but he settled for Sesame Chicken and Fried Rice. He liked the chicken, but the fried rice didn’t win him over. No fried rice will if it doesn’t have egg in it! Either way, I was pleased to have enough left for lunch on Monday. Next time we order from them I need to try their Wonton Soup – that’s the true test of a good Chinese Restaurant!

Snack: My afternoon snack was 1/2 cup of plain, nonfat greek yogurt with about 1 teaspoon of honey in the mix, 1/4 cup of frozen mixed berries, and about 1 tablespoon each of walnuts and chia seeds. Gotta get my omega-3s on for Miss Emma’s lil baby brain development… annnnnnd because they’re delicious. Two birds, amiright?

Dinner: Well we got take out on Sunday because I reallllly didn’t feel like going to get groceries, so we HAD to get them on Monday night. We opted for a quick Wegmans dinner so I snagged an Avocado Summer Roll and a Spicy Shrimp Summer Roll. They’re probably two of my favorite things Wegmans has to offer in general food wise. Their sushi bar is soooooo fabulous and I love that I have so many options that aren’t raw (for now…muhuhaha). There was SO MUCH avocado in the avocado one it was perfect!! I also felt like I had eaten a lot of beige throughout the day, and I wanted to get my veggies on.

Dessert: I finally decided that Monday was the night I would make my own homemade chocolate chip peanut butter larabars/date balls/energy bites/whatever you wanna call em. I took 12 medjool dates, 3 tablespoons of peanut butter, 2 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder, 1/2 cup of crushed peanuts, 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla, 1 tablespoon of water, and a handful of mini chocolate chips and whizzed them all together in the food processor. It made about a dozen little balls. I rolled the little balls in some more crushed peanuts just for funsies, too. I wound up munching on two of these. I also wound up taking the tablespoon I measure the peanut butter with and I accidentally dropped it into a jar of nutella…so I had to eat it…obviously. I also did not take a photo of the glass of orange juice I had later on in the evening whilst watching Couples Retreat…which I effing love and watch every time it’s on!!

So folks…
What’s your go-to for Chinese take out?? What is your favorite weekday breakfast?? Have you ever made date balls? What’s your favorite combination?

Hey dudes!! A very happy Wednesday to you!! This Wednesday is particularly happy for me because I only have 1 work day left this week and tomorrow I get to see Bill, Susan, annnd MY MOMMA!!!Woot!!! I’m so very excited for this weekend!!!!

Imma keep my intro pretty short this week, because, well, the post itself is prettttty lengthy. You’re a real trooper if you actually red the whole thing…but here it goes!! I present to you my road trip and eats from South Carolina. As always, shout out to Jenn at Peas and Crayons for hosting!!!

Breakfast on the Road: We’ve road tripped with Johnny’s parents before and it’s pretty safe to say that we are guaranteed to stop at McDonalds several times for coffee/breakfast/etc. Although I’m pretty okay eating a McDonald’s oatmeal or evvvvvvvvven an Egg McMuffin on a rare occasion I decided not to mess around this trip. I planned ahead to make sure Johnny and I had some substantial and nutritous munchies for breakfast and snacks while on this trip!! I will note, however, that I always get a kids chocolate milk at McDonalds. Yes. There is quite a bit of sugar in it. Buuuuuuuuuuut it’s delicious and went to well with what I brought…that is… a huge container of peanut butter (which, I assure you, I took all four days to eat) that I dipped a perfect banana in (because my perfect banana has lots of spots and is super ripe without a speck of green) and a banana chocolate chip protein muffin. Also, McDonalds seems to always oblige when I ask for a coffee cup filled with hot water so I could brew my own decaf green tea in the car. Perfect!!! I also munched on an apple cinnamon rice cake when I was feeling snacky, probably around 11!Lunch: I suggested we stop at Cracker Barrel for lunch on Friday. I knew everyone (that is, Johnny and my in-laws) loves their coffee, plus it was a Friday so we needed to have some meatless options, which I knew they have. Annnnnnnnnd I love looking around the gift shop! I was delighted when I saw their “Wholesome Fixin’s” menu, which provided calorie counts and lighter options. I was super excited to see their Egg n’ Cheese Sliders – eggs over hard with some shredded colby cheese and tomato slices on lil’ whole wheat sandwich thins (it also comes with mayo, which I cannot for the life of me understand!!) and a wee cup of fresh fruit. We were already in North Carolina at this point in time, having hit the road at 3:00am, so it was getting hot out, too, so this was the peeerrfect lite lunch for me to enjoy!!Starbucks:So, funny story. I’ve mentioned before in a few of my bumpdates that I swear by my Bella Band. I have yet to purchase a pair of maternity pants and the Bella Band helps me keep all of my pants up! Well, I wore it with my work pants on Thursday, went to the gym, and wound up throwing it in the laundry hamper bundled with my black pants instead of packing it. I’m thankful I remembered while we were driving!! Soooo we made a pitstop at the local Target so I could pick up another one (now I have one in black and in white, which is nice because a lot of my shirts are lighter colors and you could see the black right through it). Obviously, since we stopped at target, I had to grab an iced-decaf-tall-nonfat-latte-in-a-grande-cup-with-extra-ice-and-1-splenda. And obviously I had no choice but to take a photo of myself drinking it. Hehe.

So at this point. We arrived!! We said our hellos to the fam!! Lots of baby talk. Lots of baseball talk (as all 5 of Johnny’s cousins are boys…who play baseball). Lots of lounging. I took a nice long shower (I don’t know about you, but after a day of sitting in the warm car I LOVE taking a nice, COOL shower and just standing there until I feel like moving. Johnny thinks I’m nuts. But cool showers rock!) and got settled in and had a nice dinner that included salmon, baked potatoes, corn, and green beans. We hung out on the covered patio for most of the night chatting and catching up before we hit the hay pretty early since we had such a long day!!

Saturday was the Flower Festival. It’s just a big ol’ street fair with lots of vendors and LOTS of people. This year Johnny and I splurged just a wee bit on some fancy schmancy oil and vinegar from a local vendor, The Crescent Olive. We sampled a whole bunch (like Chipotle Oil and Pineapple Vinegar) and they were all fantastic, but we wound up buying a bottle of Tuscan Herb Olive Oil and Fig Balsamic Vinegar. (FIG BALSAMIC IS LIFE CHANGINGGGGGG!) We also wound up snagging a pint of local strawberries that looked soooo tasty I couldn’t say no to them, and an avocado so I could whip up a tasty salad for lunch. Leave it to me to go to a street fair and buy nothing but food…that I can cook when I get home. Lol.

Lunch: We were pretty hungry when we got back from the Flower Fest as it was suuuuuuuuuuuuper hot and humid outside. I made an AMAZING salad for lunch though. I took some organic mixed greens, the local strawberries, some avocado, and some of the previous evening’s leftover salmon and drizzled it with a little bit of the herb oil and fig vinegar. My goodness. I loved everything about this salad. Sure…I would have loved a gyro or something like that from the street fair…but this salad was so worth waiting until I got home to eat!!

After lunch, we took a nice long walk around the neighborhood (we really did just spend the majority of our trip walking…or eating). There is a huuuuge treehouse at the end of the block with some swings and such. Swinging is my happy place. Seriously. It just makes me so happy!!

I was actually pretty pooped after our walk – my hands also blew up like balloons. I thought maybe it was a pregnancy thing until Johnny and his dad said the same thing happens to them in the humidity. Dang it was unpleasant. I wound up taking a nice nap before dinner.

Dinner: We ate dinner at a place called The Icehouse. Johnny’s Aunt Amy and Uncle Kevin are big fans, so all 15 of us trucked on over for dinner. I started off with a “caprese salad”. I use the quotes because, although it was tasty, it was really just a mixed green salad with a few tomatoes and some mozzarella tossed in. But it’s totally okay – because my meal was perfection. Shrimp. And. Grits. Actually – their version of Shrimp and Grits may be my favorite to date!! It’s not that I don’t like super creamy grits, it’s that I don’t typically like the ratio of grits to everything else (too much grits, not enough everything else. spoken like a true northerner, I’m sure!). This was so delicious!! It was a “fried grit cake” so it was a bit crispy on the outside and nice and creamy on the inside, topped with shrimp, andoullie sausage, mushrooms, green onions, and some cheese. I ate every bite. Johnny loved his meal too, and who wouldn’t?? He totes carbed out and got friend chicken with mashed potatoes and mac and cheese. OoOoOo and Johnny’s Aunt Maria got cornbread that came with this spicy honey that I could bathe in. Seriously. The fried chicken IN the spicy honey…oh heavens…ridiculous.

Dessert: After a dinner like that I didn’t want anything for dessert at the restaurant. Grandma Yoder is a BIG fan of having a nice mexican or irish coffee after dinner, though, so she had a pretty steady supply of Ready Whip at home. At about 9 when we were all just chatting on the patio again I sliced up a few more strawberries and added a healthy does of whipped cream…because I was on vacation…duh…and YUM!

Sunday was spent mostly walking around Charleston. There’s a fun market there we went to, we walked along the water front, annnnnnnnnnnd I got Nutella gelato. Weee!!!!

On the Road Home: It was poooouring rain during the drive home, which ya know, as a passenger isn’t really a big deal, we all really just wanted to get home. We made a quick pitstop for lunch at Wawa and grabbed it to go. I was surprised to see a Wawa that far south, but whateves…I was good with it. I’m still funny with meat sometimes, lately, especialllllly the processed icky kind that you’ll most likely get at a Wawa or what-have-you…so I opted for a cheese quesadilla with some pico and avocado. I also snagged an almond cocoloco chobani flip because they’re deliciousssssss!!Our Last Pitstop: It was about 3:00 on Monday when we made our last pitstop at a Dunkin Donuts for coffee and to pee (which, btw, wasn’t as bad as I anticipated. woot!). It was so dreary out and smelled so coffeelicious in there that I couldn’t not snag a decaf toasted almond coffee with some milk and sugar. Noms!!Dinner(After scouring the pantry): I really didn’t feel like getting take out Monday night after all of the food we ate out over the weekend, so I looked around to see what I could whip up. What did I find? A box of pasta, a can of tomato paste, some bacon in the freezer, half a bag of spinach, and parmesan cheese.I was totally good with this. So cozy and homey after being on the road. We ended our evening snuggling with our little Quincy and watching the Game of Thrones premier!!!!!